Dancer Dominic North first appeared with Matthew Bourne's New Adventures in 2004 as an ensemble swan in Swan Lake. Since making his official début in a principal role as Edward in Edward Sissorhands in 2008 at the Sydney Opera House, he has performed as many of Bourne's lead characters.
Currently touring with Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty, Dominic found time for a quick chat with Georgina Butler to discuss how things have moved on since the "original" Princess Aurora dozed off...
Matthew Bourne is renowned for delving into stories in a bid to reveal characters’ motivations and unearth deeply buried narrative elements.
His Sleeping Beauty is devised as a gothic romance full of fairies, supernatural surprises and, of course, true love. Bourne plays around with the time that the story is set so that Princess Aurora is born the year that the classical ballet first premièred and "comes of age" with a 21st birthday during the Edwardian era. This means that she is roused from her slumber in 2012 (which is when Bourne's Sleeping Beauty was premièred).
He certainly gives the traditional tale enough ingenious twists and turns to keep a contemporary audience intrigued. Just for starters, Aurora falls for the royal gamekeeper; the couple enjoy a sweet romance before the princess visits the land of Nod and a vampiric twist heavily influences who is there to wake her up a century later! Nonetheless, Bourne's careful attention to detail when coming up with his concept means that he manages to put his own spin on proceedings while simultaneously paying homage to the masterpiece that the classical ballet will forever be.
What better way to learn more about Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty than by chatting to New Adventures' principal dancer Dominic North all about the role that has made him wake up and see this fairy tale differently...
We all know to expect the unexpected from Mr Bourne but what did you think when his concept for Sleeping Beauty was awakened for the very first time in the rehearsal room?
I really wondered what he would do to the story to make it his own and when he started describing his vision for it I could definitely see how it would work for today’s society and a contemporary audience. I mean, now, you wouldn’t marry the first guy that kisses you would you?! So, by having the love story happen at the beginning – before she falls asleep – it really works. There is all that time when she is asleep and the world changes so the way he weaves in some vampires helps explain how characters can survive through time. Our Lilac Fairy character is actually a "Count Lilac" so rather than just softening the curse he uses his vampire ways to help make sure love conquers all!
The love story itself is just brilliant. The character that I play is called Leo and he is the love interest - but he is no prince charming, just like the Aurora character is not your standard princess. Leo is the royal gamekeeper and Aurora is a real wild child with a strong personality. The relationship between her and Leo is almost a bit Wuthering Heights or Lady Chatterley’s Lover – which is exciting to dance and portray.
Do you have a particular section within the show which is your favourite piece to dance?
Tchaikovsky’s music is just brilliant but the Rose Adagio is such a famous piece of music, it is epic. So the section where I dance to that piece of music is probably my favourite, although of course our Rose Adagio is nothing like the one you would see in the classical ballet. It is extremely emotional and involves the Aurora and Leo characters running free, travelling across the stage. It is just great fun to do, a happy dance with so much feeling. We are really just able to throw ourselves into it.
Something else that you cast members must be able to throw yourselves into is interacting with the Baby Aurora that Matthew Bourne has incorporated into this production. She is definitely something very different for audiences to appreciate…
Ah yes, the Baby Aurora! Well, in the classical ballet The Sleeping Beauty the baby Aurora is just a potato – she is not seen as she is just a baby in her cradle throughout the whole of the christening. So although the whole occasion is all about her, and it is the time when the curse is put on her, we never actually meet her.
In our Sleeping Beauty, of course, it is very different and we have a Baby Aurora who is full of personality and really makes her presence felt. She crawls around and gets up to all sorts!
We’ve got a chest of drawers full of Baby Aurora puppets – it is a little bit strange to see - and different puppets are able to do different things on-stage. So we have a “Crawling Aurora”, a “Cot Aurora” and a “Crying Aurora” early on in the ballet. I am one of three dancers who operate the “Crawling Aurora” so there is one of us on the head and body, someone else on the feet and someone else on the hands. The “Cot Aurora” just takes one guy and so does the “Crying Baby”, which is held a bit like a ventriloquist’s dummy.
How do you find that audience members react to Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty and his other productions? Do you feel that you get a real mixture in terms of ballet fans, general theatre lovers and newcomers to theatre and dance attending performances?
Most of our audience members come to be entertained and they love that we do that through a combination of different sorts of dance and plenty of drama. While those in the know might be looking to see how much ballet or contemporary dance we do, our productions are seen by people with all levels of interest in dance.
We get a lot of people who have never been to a ballet – and would refuse to ever go to one – yet they end up absolutely loving what we do and what Matthew Bourne does. The “Bourne ballets” are not ballet proper so they can get away with the cheeky things that you would not get at the classical ballet – so more humour, crazy characters, a complete theatrical experience.
I think audiences really enjoy it because we have such a broad range of dancing styles and emotions within our shows. I think it is really hard to put New Adventures in a dance genre. We have all trained in different places so some of us have trained in dance, whether that be just classical ballet or dance in a more general sense and others have trained at theatre school. Ultimately we are all performers and we want to entertain and that is what Matthew Bourne’s shows do so well. We take daily classes in both contemporary and ballet and mostly refer to New Adventures’ style in productions as “dance theatre”.
You have performed with New Adventures at Milton Keynes Theatre quite a few times in the past. Are you looking forward to being back?
Milton Keynes Theatre is definitely one of the better venues on our tour schedule! Partly for its size as there is plenty of space both on-stage for dancing and off backstage. I love a nice dressing room - and I know I’ll get that, along with hot water! As well as the building itself, the crew are lovely and audiences in Milton Keynes are always really receptive.
Go on then, tell us again: why should we come and see Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty?
This take on the classic fairy tale has so much going for it. Like all Matthew Bourne’s work there are some really clever twists and the characters are so well developed. I love that our Princess Aurora is a real wild child – you see that in the baby puppet and then when the grown-up Aurora is on-stage she is still a bit of a rebel!
Our Sleeping Beauty definitely has something for everyone whether you are a die-hard dance fan or not. It’s got a good story, good dancing, good music, good acting and humorous moments too – it’s light theatre at its very best.
Bourne’s productions are all about getting audiences to engage. We have humour, crazy and loveable characters and stories that really draw you in - as well as lots of dance content. Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is no exception and I am really looking forward to our run in Milton Keynes.
> For more dance and theatre interviews, news, features and reviews by Georgina, visit http://georginabutler.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @GeorginaLButler.
> Matthew Bourne's 'Sleeping Beauty' comes to Milton Keynes Theatre from Tuesday 26th January until Saturday 30th January. Call the Box Office on 0844 871 7652 or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes.
